In the Shadow of Slavery

African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863

Leslie M. Harris

• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9780226824864
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

A new edition of a classic work revealing the little-known history of African Americans in New York City before Emancipation.
The popular understanding of the history of slavery in America almost entirely ignores the institution's extensive reach in the North. But the cities of the North were built by—and became the home of—tens of thousands of enslaved African Americans, many of whom would continue to live there as free people after Emancipation.
In the Shadow of Slavery reveals the history of African Americans in the nation's largest metropolis, New York City. Leslie M. Harris draws on travel accounts, autobiographies, newspapers, literature, and organizational records to extend prior studies of racial discrimination. She traces the undeniable impact of African Americans on class distinctions, politics, and community formation by offering vivid portraits of the lives and aspirations of countless black New Yorkers. This new edition includes an afterword by the author addressing subsequent research and the ongoing arguments over how slavery and its legacy should be taught, memorialized, and acknowledged  by governments.
 
 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Series Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Slavery in Colonial New York
• Chapter 2. The Struggle against Slavery in Revolutionary and Early National New York
• Chapter 3. Creating a Free Black Community in New York City during the Era of Emancipation
• Chapter 4. Free but Unequal: The Limits of Emancipation
• Chapter 5. Keeping Body and Soul Together: Charity Workers and Black Activism in Post-emancipation New York City
• Chapter 6. The Long Shadow of Southern Slavery: Radical Abolitionists and Black Political Activism against Slavery and Racism
• Chapter 7. “Pressing Forward to Greater Perfection”: Radical Abolitionists, Black Labor, and Black Working-Class Activism after 1840
• Chapter 8. “Rulers of the Five Points”: Blacks, Irish Immigrants, and Amalgamation
• Chapter 9. The Failures of the City
• Afterword (2023)
• Notes
• Works Consulted
• Index